Gordon Semester Programs

Gordon’s IN programs are not trips for globe surfers, smart phones in hand. Nor are they study tours alone, for academic learners observing the culture from the sidelines with syllabus in hand.

Gordon’s IN programs expect students to settle in for the long haul, patiently earning the respect of the host community through their behavior, their curiosity, their faith, their commitment to learn another language.

We expect our students to contribute something of themselves to the social, spiritual and cultural life of the host community, whether through a service-learning project or just by singing in the local church choir, babysitting for a local family or tutoring someone in English.

Orvieto sits atop a mesa of volcanic tufa and commands spectacular vistas of the surrounding countryside in the green heart of Italy. Living and studying steps from one of Europe’s great cathedrals, students are invited into a living dialogue between past and present. Students and teachers together are drawn into slower rhythms of life, sustained conversation, learning in a collaborative workshop setting, and accepting the mutual accountability of a close-knit community.

The Balkans Semester creates an academically rigorous and spiritually stimulating environment for cross-cultural, humanities-based investigation into the themes of war, peace and reconciliation. Croatia, along with Serbia, Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina serve as the backdrop for the exploration of these themes and for asking universal questions such as: What is the essence of peace? How can a society recovering from war hope to establish lasting peace? What is a Christian response to war? And how might we formulate a distinctively Christian understanding of reconciliation?

The W.I.L.D. Semester is offered through Gordon's department of Recreation, Sport and Wellness and runs each Fall Semester. W.I.L.D provides students with the opportunity to develop outdoor leadership and facilitation skills while being grounded in the foundations, philosophies, and cultural dimensions of outdoor adventure education.

The goal of the W.I.L.D. Semester is to train visionary leaders who are prepared to be agents of change in the world. Some students go on to lead in wilderness contexts, and others apply these transferrable leadership skills to a variety of career paths.

Gordon College is one of the nation's premier Christian colleges and located just north of Boston. We offer students extraordinary access to leading-edge opportunities for intellectual, professional, and leadership development to address the increasingly complex challenges of a global society. Gordon stands apart from other outstanding institutions in New England by combining an exceptional education with an informed Christian faith.